Compensation Expert Witness Testifies In Anheuser-Busch Lawsuit

Compensation expert Yvonne Chen testified in the discrimination lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch brought by former top executive Francine Katz. Katz alleged that she missed out on $9.4 million in compensation. However, a St Louis jury ruled on May 16, 2014 that AB didn’t discriminate against Katz. While her base salary was half that of her male predecessor John Jacob, the defense argued that Jacob had considerably more responsibilities than Katz.

The jury heard that including bonuses and stock options, Francine Katz earned about $1M annually after her 2002 promotion. She reported income of more than $14M for 2008 which included severance pay after the company sold to the Belgian company InBev.

Ms. Chen is the Managing Director in the New York office of compensation consultants Pearl Meyer & Partners.